Alabama man claims penis was amputated by mistake

An Alabama man who went in to a hospital last month for a circumcision awoke after surgery to find his penis had been amputated, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Johnny Lee Banks Jr., 56, said in a lawsuit filed in state court earlier this week that no one at the Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, had told him why it had been necessary to remove his penis.

"My client is devastated," said Banks' attorney John Graves.

Banks, who is married and does not work due to a disability, did not recall the precise date of the incident but believed it occurred in June, his attorney said.

A spokeswoman for the hospital's parent company said in a statement that Banks' allegations were without merit.

"We intend to defend all counts aggressively," Kate DeWitt Darden, spokeswoman for Baptist Health System, said in a statement.

The lawsuit does not specify a monetary value of the damages.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the hospital, the Simon-Williamson Clinic, Urology Centers of Alabama and two doctors, Graves said.

Representatives for the Simon-Williamson Clinic and the Urology Centers of Alabama did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)